[Avodah] Are Upsherin and Bonfires Taken from the Gentiles?

[rabbirichwolpoe at gmail.com]

Akiva:
> Can we agree that since Halloween has become so accepted among the
> non-Jews, and its origins almost entirely forgotten, that we can forget
> about how it started and not object to it anymore? Or more precisely,
> can we reduce our "objection level" about Halloween, to the same level
> as that of January 1? Or maybe even to the level of Mothers Day?
> I suspect not.

Well I actually hold that today's halloween is loosely equivalent of
the case of an aku"m being mevateil his avodah zara

IOW If the Gentiles (as opposed to us Jews) secularized it then it is
imho not AZ anymore

Disclaimer:
This is not a pesaq just a hashkafa point. I would think that any frum
yid should know better, but I think the pagan edge is not in force
anymore, it is considered merely a historical backdrop - except for
Wiccans etc.

What Jewish busnesses (eg Macy's) did with Xmas is mamash the opposite!
They took a Xtian yontiff and Jews secularized it. That bittul IMHO
doesn't work

My 2 cents
-RRW
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile